Ozarks Life: New book features murder, blackmail, and the life of Rolland Comstock

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - Near the banks of McDaniel Lake, the gates at Rolland Comstock’s old home are still standing.

But almost two decades ago, this driveway was flooded with activity.

A homicide investigation of an area lawyer and world-renowned book collector.

“So I actually started working for him about 20 years ago this week,” James Owen said.

James still remembers the call he received in July of 2007.

“It just seemed very otherworldly at the time that someone who was that old and feeble would face an end like that,” James remembers.

At one time, the Washington Post called Rolland Comstock’s book collection the largest collection of contemporary fiction in the Midwest.

Seven years, almost to the day after Lisa Rose visited Rolland and showed us his library, he was dead. Shot multiple times at close range inside his home.

An investigation went on for weeks, and then months, and now years.

“I do want people to know this is not easy work,” James said, “and that sometimes the facts and circumstances don’t lead themselves to a tidy conclusion.”

Rolland’s library was just a glimpse of his unique life. He opened a book shop on C-Street at the age of 16. Was a state representative, owned pet hybrid-wolves, and as a probate lawyer who took on and won unusual cases, like representing Butch the Bulldog, the beneficiary to an estate.

“I would talk about this, and people just kept saying, well, this would make a really interesting book,” James said. “This is a really interesting story. And I started thinking, yeah, it would make a really interesting book. I wonder who would (write) that.”

So in 2012, James started gathering documents and interviews for his new book, The Wicked Among Us: Murder, Blackmail, and Book Collecting in the Ozarks.

“I didn’t want to just exploit this death,” James said. “I didn’t just want to exploit this murder. I wanted to look at him as a person about his stubborn existence. And I really do hope that people find him interesting and they find him to be almost literary.”

KY3 anchor Chad Plein took James to C-Street, and asked him outside the building where Comstock had his bookstore, what he’d think of James writing a book about his life?

“I do believe that Rolland was someone who was a larger-than-life character, who did kind of kind of take a little bit of pride in dramatics and theatrics,” James said. “I think he would have really enjoyed the idea that people were putting this much fuss about him and his life.

In a civil trial 2011, a jury found Comstock’s ex-wife Alberta, likely killed him. She has since passed away. No criminal charges have been filed in this case.

The book, The Wicked Among Us comes out on Tuesday, January 20. You can find it on Amazon, at Barnes and Noble, or by clicking here to visit the publisher’s website.

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